Episode 2140 (5th October 1981)
Plot Stan advertises his window round for sale; he's fed up with working and plans to live off the Social, Hilda and Eddie's rent. Brian fears that Ronnie Burgess will die. Mike fears that Sylvie Hicks is after Frankie's money. Hilda reads an advertisement for a window-cleaning round for sale and considers buying it for Stan without telling him. Audrey refuses to work Alf's hours and closes at 5.30pm. Brian discovers that Ronnie is out of danger. Det. Sgt. Whiteley tells Brian that he's got to be charged with unlawfully wounding Ronnie. He is taken to the police station. Cast Regular cast *Hilda Ogden - Jean Alexander *Stan Ogden - Bernard Youens *Eddie Yeats - Geoffrey Hughes *Gail Tilsley - Helen Worth *Brian Tilsley - Christopher Quinten *Mike Baldwin - Johnny Briggs *Audrey Potter - Sue Nicholls *Annie Walker - Doris Speed *Ivy Tilsley - Lynne Perrie *Bert Tilsley - Peter Dudley *Mavis Riley - Thelma Barlow *Bet Lynch - Julie Goodyear *Vera Duckworth - Elizabeth Dawn Guest cast *Frankie Baldwin - Sam Kydd *Sylvie Hicks - Debbie Arnold (Credited as "Sylvia Hicks") *Det. Sgt. Whiteley - Frank Elliott Places *Coronation Street *Rovers Return Inn - Public *5 Coronation Street - Downstairs rooms *13 Coronation Street - Back room and kitchen *5 Buxton Close - Living room and kitchen *46b, St. Mary's Place - Living room and kitchen Notes *Based on listings in TV Times, this was the first episode of the programme to carry subtitles on ITV's ORACLE teletext service. ORACLE was somewhat behind the BBC's CEEFAX service in providing subtitles for hard-of-hearing viewers, partly due to their engineering research starting later than their competitor but also due to a year-long strike of the ORACLE staff based at London Weekend Television from the Autumn of 1977 onwards. While the BBC first carried advertised subtitles for a special programme for deaf viewers entitled Quietly in Switzerland on 2nd September 1979 and the latest series of the quiz show Blankety Blank four days later, it wasn’t until a repeat of Edward and Mrs Simpson from 10th July to 21st August 1980 that ITV followed suit and then stated that it was only as an experiment to test the service. The TV Times of 25th to 31st October 1980 said that in the new year Coronation Street would “probably” be the first programme to have regular subtitles but there were problems as it took thirty hours for a skilled operator to subtitle a one-hour programme at cost of £1,000. As 1981 proceeded, there was no sign of any subtitling of programmes with the exception of the Royal Wedding on 29th July. For several months after this episode Coronation Street was the only programme to carry ORACLE subtitles and this led to a letter of protest to TV Times in the issue of 27th February to 5th March 1982 from a Paul Harrison of Margate, Kent who said “not everyone is a Coronation Street fanatic". In reply, Mr Harrison was told of an increase in the service that was taking place with subtitles already on Shelley (from 18th February), A Voyage Round My Father (on 2nd March), The Haunting of Cassie Palmer (from 26th February) and the documentary series The Human Race which began on 6th April. *''TV Times'' synopsis: A shock for Gail Tilsley when the police come looking for her husband Brian. Stan Ogden launches a secret retirement plan - but, unknown to him, wife Hilda gets in on the act *Viewing Figures: First UK broadcast - 15,750,000 viewers (2nd place). Category:1981 episodes